Sunday, January 14, 2007

On Dr. King's Day

"In the days ahead we must not consider it unpatriotic to raise certain basic questions about our national character. We must begin to ask, Why are there forty million poor people in a nation overflowing with such unbelievable affluence? Why has our nation placed itself in the position of being God's military agent on earth? Why have we substituted the arrogant undertaking of policing the whole world for the high task of putting our own house in order?" Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968.)

How sobering that Dr. King's questions are every bit as relevant as they were 39... count 'em: 39!... years ago. (And maybe even more so? Sigh.)+